‘True Detective’ Finale Crashes HBO Go

The demand for tonight’s season finale of HBO‘s True Detective was so great online, the network’s streaming service HBO GO temporarily crashed trying to fulfill all incoming requests for the closing episode. “Due to overwhelmingly popular demand for #TrueDetective, we’ve been made aware of an issue affecting some users. Please try again soon,” HBO GO tweeted earlier tonight. Service was eventually restored. The disruption reaffirms True Detective‘s status as a pop culture phenomenon, which it has been able to achieve in only eight episodes. It also underlines how inherently irrelevant traditional overnight ratings are with that so many HBO subscribers preferring to watch online, they overwhelmed the network’s server. Of course, the streaming difficulties could have prompted True Detective fans who had no intention of watching the show on TV to do so, bringing extra viewers for the finale’s Nielsen ratings. While the first season of True Detective was conceived as a closed-ended arc with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson, creator Nic Pizzolatto is already working on a premise for a second season with new characters and a new storyline in a new locale.

43 Comments

Tonight’s finale was good but also the most generic episode of the season as it played like a slightly more upscale version of any number of CBS’ crime dramas.

An Outsider • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Please tell me you don’t work in development…

yeah • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

I second this. Thought it was really generic–ooooo, a house in the woods with scary old-fashioned dolls, ooooooo! The solution to the crime, the criminal, etc., were pretty lame when it all washed out.

Love how there are no ramifications to the dozens of ways these two cops violated what would’ve been standard and appropriate procedures. All said, the series was at its best when it was most derivative of better shows and mostly pooped the bed in terms of breaking any ground or making any sense.

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stilted • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Uh, I love the show, but what the fuck DOESN’T cause HBOGO to crash?

Candy • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

TRUE DEFECTIVE

ForumRunner • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

So, after all was said and done…

1. Who was the Yellow King and how did the mythology fit in to the ritualistic killings?

2. Why, after so committing so many previous kidnappings/rapes/killings under the radar was this last murder victim arranged in such an obvious manner?

3. What was the deal with Hart’s eldest daughter? Some fairly heavy hints were dropped throughout the lead-up that she was a victim of sexual abuse and then…nothing.

4. There was also a hint that she may have been a victim of the “five men” given the allusions throughout the series to the Five Horsemen and the unsettling tableau in which she arranges her dolls. Was this simply a coincidence?

5. And what was Hart’s final line? I rewound it five times and I still couldn’t make it out.

SPOILER • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Responding to ForumRunner with SPOILER!! SKIP IF YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE:

The last line sounded like “The Light is winning.”

gwen • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Cant work it out in my head,was it more style than substance i suppose when the blu ray comes along it’ll become clearer for me as all great TV shows as we all know have repeatability, crime drama or not.

Jane Guttieri • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Brilliant, HBO continues to treat the viewing public to great entertainment.They have always approached their public with respect, setting the bar high, knowing that they have both heart and intelligence and are craving great entertainment.

eyes • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Girlz!

Oooph • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Yea they definitely didn’t set the bar high for that one.

Peter joy • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

I’m so glad HBO can find so many positives in the fact that the service crashed – because for me it was just a huge pain in the ass. HBO is an expensive service, there’s almost nothing I care about watching, it simply should have worked. Once I finally got it to work, the episode was a huge letdown, paying off little of the grandiose promise of the early episodes and landing somewhere much more conventional. So the joke is on me.

Jack • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Best story telling since The Wire. Every note was flawless. I have not watched a lot of TV in years, but gotdamn that was great stuff.

Nid • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

So that blue swirly thing that Cohle saw before he got clocked was the HBOGO Ethernet and all its subscribers? Crash!

sorry to be a lone voice against, but I found the story plodding, and unwatchable. I found the parody on “The Soup” more entertaining, and understandable.

Elgin • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Dwayne Chase,

Maybe try CSI: Miami then? That might be more your speed.

yeratool • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

This was just CSI with more helicopter shots and some bare breasts. The Soup parody was dead on.

Roy • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Let’s face it, it was crashed by the influx of people using borrowed accounts that can access HBO Go but can’t watch it on their cable. But it’s awesome to see the show so popular, it’s really well made.

Lord Dinwiddie Junious Smythe-Twee • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

YEAH, and the DeGeneres coma inducing “selfie” crashed the twitssphere— and that did not make the Oscars an awesome broadcast.

the black chick... • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

That’s what I was thinking. These are all people who don’t pay for HBO and are using borrowed accounts…

I’d be curious to see how many additional cable viewers they would have if there was no HBOgo.

Who Asked You Anyway • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

The emperor has no clothes. Stylish, scary and well paced as well as well acted. Unfortunately the story made no sense and I had to spend WAY TOO MUCH time rewinding what was being said. Is this the era of the mumblers. Note to actors: if you mumble and speak in breathy breaths the audience cannot hear or understand what YOU think is great dialog. Oh, and to Woody – clenching your jaw does not equal communicating emotion (well, it could if not done over and over and over).

Mary G. • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Use the Captions if you want to hear every word. I DO! It makes a world of difference.

hagrid • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Since none of it made much sense from a crime, police work or suspense standpoint, they mumble to try to put it over. It’s just another style cue in a show that was all style cues.

Plot wise, this just cobbled together the greatest hits of every cop show ever (they had 8 hours to fill). I don’t think they left many cliches untouched. For a second season, they might have to come up with something logical. They’ve got their work cut out for them.

Steve • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

It was something about how there used to be only dark so the way he sees it, light is winning. Something like that anyway

heidi • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

It would have been nice for the HBO subscribers to have access to a service we paid for. But unfortunately there were a ton of people who gave out their username and passwords to a bunch of freeloaders who ruined it for everyone. Thanks guys….

I watch plenty of stuff on HBO Go, so I can appreciate your frustration, but it’s not like there aren’t other options like, you know, watching HBO on your TV.

Even if you don’t have a DVR, if you get HBO, you get about six HBO channels. “True Detective” was airing on at least one of these channels from 9pm – midnight. Lastly, you and I pay just as much for HBO now than we did years ago before HBO Go. It’s an added service.

nostradamette • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

It sucks to pay HBO’s pricey rates and get screwed like that, but in a larger sense, this is good. HBO’s business model is untenable, as proven by the fact that subscribers are gaming the system by giving out passwords to people who refuse to pay HBO extortion. HBO is simply priced above what the market demands, and this crash is a symptom of that dysfunction.

Netflix also has a huge audience, but the finale of House of Cards didn’t make the system crash. Netflix’s cheap price matches what the market demands, so there is much less incentive for people to game the system.

And this might be a reason for HBO to forget the old system of releasing episodes each week and just imitate Netflix in making all episodes available at once. That spreads the load, as some people binge while others (like me), watch in an irregular schedule over a period of weeks.

Elgin • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

“HBO is simply priced above what the market demands, and this crash is a symptom of that dysfunction.”

What then is the correct, market-dictated price point for a network that makes the best stuff on television? Do you have a specific dollar amount? Or are you just mad they aren’t giving it to you for free?

The HBO Go abuse has little to do with “HBO extortion” (kudos on not resorting to hyperbole to make your there) and more to do with the fact that fewer people have traditional cable now due to the other ways to consume content. HBO is one of the few reasons (in addition to live sports) for anyone to pay for cable these days. If there’s any extortion going on, it ain’t HBO — it’s the cable and satellite companies forcing you to pay for TLC and Bravo when all you want is HBO and AMC.

oh, ok... • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

hbo tweeted that “some” subscribers had problems. does “some” = time-warner and comcast? is brian roberts the yellow king?

more questions: what was the point of the ritualistically murdered, publicly displayed full grown woman in the first episode when the bad guys are members of a secret devil worshipping child sacrificing cult?

i read pizzolatto was writing the last 3 episodes after production began. given what appear to be strategically designed editorials (ex: romano’s installments at the daily beast) is there a bit of “the emperor’s new clothes” syndrome here? and did pizzolatto just say “meh” to the symbolism of the intriguing opening?

i really enjoyed the characters, and the spin (there’s love in the black mud) on eben alexander’s description of his afterlife experience during rust’s semi-cathartic monologue moment around the pain from the loss of his daughter (in prior episodes he had suggested he was going to kill himself after he caught the bad guy).

in the end it was a fun, stylized, engaging and immersive escape from reality.

tdrules • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

BEST SHOW SINCE BREAKING BAD!! Get the Emmy ready for Matthew cause he hit it out of the park on this one.

tvwatcher • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Hint. Turn closed caption on to see what you can’t hear.

JackOfficer • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

all though i did enjoy the season, i wont miss it if it didnt come back (if it does i hope mcconaughey isnt in it)

sherry • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

I thoroughly enjoyed the series. I loved the music, thought the acting was great and liked the ending. Some stuff was unanswered. Maybe they can pick it up next year. I thought it was a nice hero adventure in the classic fashion. It reminded me of Joseph Campbell and his thoughts on the heroic journey. Thank you to all who made this really engaging show.

Dud G • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Final line: Once there was only one dark , ask me the lights winning

Aux012 • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Hope for Rust Coles soul was appropriate coupled with the truth of his war against violent evil. Justice and the baptism of shared pain makes the partnership of Cole and Hart valid. It proves that loyalty and tolerance to each other’s imperfections for the sake of resolution to the first leg of a shared journey make their friendship tolerable. In the next season we can hope to see them pursue justice against the remaining evil conspirators and see the development of Harts intellect and instincts to complement Coles twisted philosophies and obvious genius. The emergence of follow on evil characters and and the ensuing twists and turns on the next leg of their journey would make the next season as addictive as the first. Here is hoping they make another set of episodes. The writers are to be praised for a believable tale of the struggle of people in a dangerous world.

doreen • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

I loved the show and couldn’t wait or the season ending. Loved Woody and matthew

Angelica2c • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

I thought the show in entirety was awesome. I think the questions left unanswered are for the audience to fill in the blanks. Maybe one day there will be another episode that relates to this one. Woody and Matthew did excellent acting.
I enjoyed watching them interacting and seeing how they both have evolved in thier acting careers. I look forward to the next true detective and who the next actors will be.

Deborah Harris • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

Loved True Detective!! I thought the ending was great!! It did not disappoint!! In fact, I found the ending surprisingly uplifting for such a consistently “Dark” story. It was also a nail biter, somehow, you just knew someone would die. . . but Cohle and Hart had both been through a lot. . so I thought it fitting that they did survive and Light did prevail. I found it interesting that some questions were not answered. Who were the other masked figures in the cult? Hart’s daughter’s story was also left for one to ponder over. But this was brilliant also, because as Hart says they weren’t meant to catch all the bad guys. . . maybe the masks that the men wore represented the fact that the true bad guys often wear masks in public to hide their darker side. I always got a creepy feeling from Hart’s father-in-law. Who knows. . maybe Hart’s daughter and his ex-wife both were victims of child abuse, since obviously Maggie had a lot of repressed sexual hang-ups as well. Anyway, it was a great HBO show!!!

M. Miraglia • on Mar 9, 2014 11:10 pm

When I watch Mcconaughey as Rust I’m amazed at his grasp of the character. I once knew a guy who could have served as inspiration for the character of Rust Cohle. His attitude, mannerisms and neglected appearance all told the tale of what her called his “demons”. Because of my experience, Rust is extremely believable!